


Be With Me

by featherpoet



Category: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), I’m so sorry, Oh God Yes, Spoilers, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, You Have Been Warned, force fucking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:00:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21909358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/featherpoet/pseuds/featherpoet
Summary: SPOILERS.Rey works through the aftermath of a traumatic event with an unexpected visitor.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	Be With Me

Rey watched his body disappear and everything lurched into a sudden stupor.

Ben was free, truly free. Perhaps that’s why Rey could dimly feel a smile stretched across her face. She had been right about him all along. The grace of Leia’s love had saved him. The strength of Ben’s courage, in those final moments…

Ben was gone, truly gone. Perhaps that’s why the stinging taste of salt cut through her numbness. This sliver of happiness, this reification of her most private dreams, had hurt more than any pain Rey had ever felt. _I will cherish this moment forever._

“Be with me,” Rey whispered shakily. She clutched at Ben’s shirt and brought it to her lips. It was still warm, still damp with sweat and blood. A small sob escaped from the crevices of her fractured heart. “Ben,” she breathed into the dark fabric. “Ben…”

“I’m here, Rey.”

Rey whipped around desperately, full of hope and disbelief. Watery vision blurred the edges of a faintly glowing man kneeling behind her, but not enough that she couldn’t immediately recognize him. Her heart soared. “You’re here.”

Ben was still here. Rey closed her eyes and wept in earnest, fiery relief coursing through her veins. _Thank you,_ she projected out into the Force. She could feel Ben’s smile. It was as real to her as if she were looking with her eyes, touching with her fingertips, or caressing with her lips.

She didn’t flinch when Ben reached out and brushed at the tears on her cheeks. His thoughts were as visible to her as her own, and the distinction between the two seemed wholly unnecessary to Rey in that moment. The touch was faint at first, feather-light, but it grew stronger as Ben adjusted to his new point of access to the Force. She could feel his resolve, and she knew it was only a matter of time before he mastered this new skill.

Rey’s thoughts were suddenly elsewhere, racing into a future where they would never need to be apart. They were destiny, inevitability, an inseparable dyad in the Force. Rey had watched the destroyers falling from the sky before her life force ebbed too low to perceive them anymore. Rey had felt the euphoric highs of her friends as they zipped around in scores of fighter planes overhead. Rey had even watched Darth Sidious disintegrate into ash before her. Those victories had been tangible and powerful, but this was the first moment when their victory felt real to her.

Rey leaned forward, an invitation. Ben met her in the middle and kissed her gently. His hand crept around the back of her neck, but instead of drawing her closer as he had intended, he phased somewhat through her. The sensation was similar to Rey’s earliest attempts to access the Force, a faint tingling and an electric current shooting down her spine. She squirmed involuntarily, and Ben lost his focus. The psychic barrier he had maintained around his face collapsed, and Rey gasped as he fell a few inches through her. Ben recoiled immediately. The two looked at each other, dazzled, and then they both burst into laughter. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation was overwhelming.

Using the blade of her hand to finally cap off her tears, Rey smiled at Ben. “Let me help,” she said. Ben nodded. She reached out, hovering just slightly away from Ben’s cheek. They both focused on the plane of his skin, in perfect synchrony, and Rey finally touched him. It was so active, so poignantly active. Rey closed her eyes to cut out any distractions, and she split her mind into two parts like Leia had trained her to do. With the separated part, Rey brought her second hand to the other side of Ben’s face. He was radiating emotions in short swells.

She needed to be closer. It was addicting. Her mind broke eagerly into three parts and Rey pressed her lips to Ben’s forehead. His lips parted with a soft breath. Rey opened her eyes and kissed him on the mouth. She watched his eyes crinkle as he smiled into their kiss and thought that his smile was lovely from every angle.

The synchrony of their thoughts and intentions resonated through Rey’s entire being. Her body had been transformed into a perfect bell, ringing low and pure, and the knot of Force energy in her solar plexus was brighter and fuller than it had ever been before. Palpatine had been right: their power together was surely unmatched across space and time. This was love and harmony that he could never have imagined.

Ben quested out that he wanted to touch her, too. At nearly the same moment, Rey screamed a silent “Yes!” over her own Force wave. A soft hand fluttered onto her shoulder, followed quickly by a firmer grasp on the small of her back. Rey deepened the kiss and they both gasped.

_Do you need to breathe?_ Rey asked, suddenly curious. There hadn’t been any mention of the precise mechanics of Force ghosts in the Jedi texts, which now seemed like an enormous oversight.

After a thoughtful moment, Ben answered. _No, I don’t think so. It’s just a habit._

_I wonder what other habits we’re holding onto,_ Rey thought. Her pulse quickened as their thoughts travelled to forbidden, secret places. Knowing that Ben had also felt those things and had those dreams was unutterably erotic. Then, they had the same idea at the same time.

Trembling with anticipation, Rey let her mind slip back into two, then one part, releasing her grip on the psychic barriers she had helped maintain. She held Ben’s gaze, feeling more vulnerable and naked than if it had been her own clothes in a heap on the floor. Ben smiled and sent soft, warm comfort to her, which she wrapped around herself like a blanket.

“I’m ready,” she said aloud. Ben started to take a stabilizing breath but caught himself, smiling sheepishly. Rey smirked back, nervous and excited.

Then, it was happening. Ben’s hands were the first to pass through Rey’s body, drawing peculiar, tingling traces into her skin from her back to her hip and her shoulder to her chest. It felt warm and cold all at once. Tiny lights danced at the nape of her neck, waiting to race up into the base of her skull.

Rey reached out to embrace Ben, encouraging him to draw closer. Her arms did less than her thoughts to guide him closer; Ben followed her as she lay back onto the grey stone until he hovered just over her. Rey rather liked the way that his long threads of black hair draped around his face. It was a very pleasant view. Rey’s arms were nestled within Ben’s Force projection, and the dancing lights in her neck were becoming very distracting.

“How are you?” Rey asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Warm,” Ben replied.

“Good.”

_You?_

Rey wasn’t distressed that she didn’t have words to answer this impossible question; everything was new and unknown and Rey just wanted more. Ben smiled again, softly, and blinked his understanding. Rey took a deep breath and released it as Ben began to descend towards her, into her, through her. Her breath caught in her throat and reversed into a sharp gasp. Force energy enveloped Rey’s body. Her solar plexus was brighter than the sun. The bell of her body rang out in a pure, constant thrum. Rey’s back arched as the dancing lights skittered around the base of her skull, occasionally shooting off in a halo around the crown of her head. The continuum of time no longer existed – years and seconds were indistinguishable. There was only before this feeling and now, Rey and Ben, material and immaterial.

_I love you._

Everything swelled suddenly. The waves crested and began to collapse towards her, the moment of impact imminent. The pools of warmth overflowed, and the stone beneath Rey cleaved into fractals with a booming crack. The echo seemed to come in slow motion as Rey laid, chest heaving, on the broken stone.

Ben drew himself back from Rey. The sensation was like a thousand tiny feathers dusting along her insides. She laughed breathlessly; then it was over.

Rey turned her head to the side to look at Ben, who was now lying beside her, but her gaze caught on the patterns in the stone. They spiraled out in every direction like an intricate flower.

“It’s… beautiful,” Rey said in awe, looking back to Ben with a smile. He grinned back. “Force fractals… I read about this, but I couldn’t understand the cypher. It’s so much more beautiful than I imagined.”

“I think we have a lot more to learn about the Force,” Ben mused, looking thoughtfully at his iridescent hands. “Maybe you’ll write your own book someday.”

Her own book? Rey blinked, stunned. She had never imagined that she would have anything to contribute to the Jedi texts. That kind of exploration had been too distant a dream to consider during the war, but now she was free to travel and study as she liked. A clutch of fear overtook Rey, and she glanced urgently at Ben.

“Stay with me?” she asked.

Ben leaned forward and touched his forehead lovingly against Rey’s. A short chord rang out from their two Force energies, creating a soft, resonant harmony.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This tore out from me like a demon in a horror film. (I'm very sorry.) Rey and Ben are all I can think about after seeing this damn film. Send help.


End file.
